ABSTRACT
Wealthy collectors toured the Mediterranean, visiting the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome and bringing back classical sculptures for their country estates. These finds-and the people that made themwere, at least in part, known through the writings of classical scholars. There were some discoveries, however, that hinted at a more remote past. In Britain and Europe the less wealthy antiquaries stayed at home and speculated about ancient European history and about the builders of burial mounds, fortifications, and occasionally more spectacular monuments such as Stonehenge in southern England. When were such structures built? Had the builders resembled the American Indians, South Sea islanders, and other living nonliterate peoples?
